Cantwell to Speak at Rollout of New Car Built with Carbon Fiber from Moses Lake

Cantwell will speak at the rollout of new car built with carbon fiber from Moses Lake.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U-S Senator Maria Cantwell is set to speak out on the rollout of the BMW i3, the first automobile to use carbon fiber in mass production.

In fact, the new car's carbon fiber was made at a Moses Lake factory. SGL Carbon Fiber's manufacturing facility supports 80 high skilled jobs in Grant County.

The Moses Lake carbon fiber is a critical component of the new BMW i3, an all-electric vehicle. The i3 represents the first time that significant carbon fiber has been used in mass production of an automobile.

On Thursday, Cantwell will talk about the advanced manufacturing and electric mobility as the car rolls out in Washington, D.C. at 11:20AM. Using carbon fiber to replace conventional steel in automobiles can lower the weight of a vehicle by up to 50 percent, improving its battery range and fuel economy. The demand for this material in automobiles is estimated to grow by an annual rate of 8.4 percent through 2020.

In 2007, Cantwell introduced legislation with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) along with then Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) to make plug-in hybrids and other electric automobiles more affordable for American consumers. A key provision of the bill that created a $7,500 tax credit for purchasers of plug-in electric vehicles became law in October 2008 as part of a bipartisan Cantwell-authored clean energy tax incentives package.